


With Me in Mind Again

by Angelwire



Category: Bleach
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 14:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20390935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelwire/pseuds/Angelwire
Summary: It's been a long and happy life. And at its conclusion, in the transition to another existence, a much longer journey presents itself. The mind is clear. With no previous baggage, two souls are drawn together, for however briefly that innocence may be maintained.





	With Me in Mind Again

_Don't be scared, I'm sure there's nothing to be worried about!_

_The doctor is very skilled. Hey, once you're out, we should get back to d9@gj54$ again. You remember, right? We used to always..._

The old woman smiled gently at the words echoing in her head. Even if it was hard to remember their names and faces, she always clung to their voices. It stopped scaring her that snippets would be lost, even this quickly after hearing them. It stopped scaring her, the thought that she really wasn't meant to last much longer. It made her smile a bit deeper to think back to how little the idea of dying had ever phased her. Wasn't that funny? But life was too short to get bogged down in such nonsense, she always thought. It was okay to take risks, and it was okay to immerse yourself in the moment completely, to better enjoy every second life gave you.

All those moments with her friends - faceless, but not meaningless. All the moments of rosy, nostalgic bliss. Ah, like when the four of them went skydiving in a foreign country, and K0%9gf&u chickened out, or like when she and another spent the entire night comforting their best friend after a breakup, or like...

Hm. Something was wrong.

It was that sense of jarring strangeness that interrupted Senna's recollections. _Jarring_, but in the same vein, she couldn't say it was unfamiliar. Her confusion didn't leave until she began paying more attention to her surroundings, noticing the abruptly different perspective. She wasn't in bed anymore. The hospital room, yes, but- but there, her bed was there. _She_ was there. And the heartbeat monitor showed a flatline.

She had died.

True to her values, Senna wasn't exactly overcome with sorrow at her own passing. She knew her family - and, more happily, she _actually knew_ her family again - would be alright, even if they were sad for a time. Admittedly, she spent a few solid minutes pondering whether she should try anything to keep them cheered up as she watched a pair of nurses rush into her room. In the end, though, Senna couldn't think of anything she could do for them as a ghost, unless she just wanted to watch them until _they_ all died. But that'd just be depressing, and she was so free now!

So very free.

Walking out of the hospital was quick, in the quite literal sense where she seemed to have no trouble passing through its walls, and the sheer sensation of lacking a physical body was ever more pronounced in the process. And it nagged at her. She _knew_ she knew how this felt, somehow; the question was how. And it was that question she kept coming back to as she strolled through the pleasant, familiar streets of Karakura Town.

Well, perhaps she'd been dead before. Reincarnation and all that. If pressed, that would have always been her first answer to a question of 'What do you believe in?'. It just seemed right, in a way, even if not in the exact same way Buddhists conceive of it. That brought up the question of whether she'd be reincarnating again, and if so, why was she still here? Perhaps she had to wait for something? But whatever that might have been, it didn't seem forthcoming. And if nothing was forthcoming, then it should be fine if she just enjoyed herself for a bit, right?

Senna was pleased at the conclusion she came to. She even found herself with a youthful, vigorous stride as she passed by storefront after storefront. The smells were always nice around here, she remembered. She could only remember all the more vividly now that she wasn't strapped to a failing old body.

Walking past the old noodle shop Sayoko used to drag her to back in their college days gave Senna the motivation to stop by as many of her favorite locations as she could, before whatever event she was implicitly waiting for came to fruition. There was even, perhaps, a sense of hurry in that. Well, not so much a sense of hurry as to prevent her from having fun with it. Even as the day steadily advanced into evening and the night would soon threaten, Senna kept up her pace.

Eventually she came to one of the bridges allowing you to cross the river. She'd been across this one the most; it was just a fact of where she lived and where she liked to go. And it was comforting to her, somehow, to walk down the pedestrian lane again, even if all alone. Senna's gaze soon strayed from the cars traversing the bridge with her to the sight of the water sparkling in the light of a beautiful sunset. It was a stunning sight... but really, the guardrail and all this metal just seemed to get in the way of it. And she was a spirit now, so could falling from a height really hurt her? Senna giggled as that thought crossed her mind, because she knew that never really stopped her from reaching any damn height she pleased, even while alive and very fragile.

It was as simple a matter as passing through the safety railing, finding her footing against the steel edges, balancing without a care in the world. Senna drew in a deep, refreshing breath, and closed her eyes to the sleepy sun.

_This feels nice_, she thought to herself.

But this location, more than most any other, seemed to be prickling that one peculiar sense inside her that said she was missing something. Which was the really odd thing about it. She wasn't old, anymore, as far as she could feel. In fact, looking down at herself, she could swear she looked like her young adult self again, wearing nothing but a simple white shitagi. Somehow, that felt most appropriate to her, though she didn't know where she would have gotten it - but back to the point, she definitely wasn't old anymore. She could remember all her friends and family perfectly, her entire life stretching back, all of it... so why couldn't she shake this feeling that she was forgetting something important? Some_one_ important?

"Excuse me," a gentle, polite voice called from behind her.

Even though in her mind she knew it made no sense to respond to human conversation now that she was dead and no one could see her, Senna found herself turning back anyways. She expected to see perhaps a young man catching the attention of a fetching lady, perhaps the unveiling of a romantic scene, but reality was jarring for her once again. Rather than any of that, her gaze was being directly met by a man wearing a black hakama, with what seemed to be _some_ sort of traditional Japanese sword fastened at his waist. His hair was short, combed neatly, and his dull green eyes were framed by a pair of sturdy glasses.

"...Oh, hehehe, I've been found out," Senna said with a grin, rubbing the back of her head. "You're another spirit, aren't you?"

"I am. Specifically, I am a Shinigami-" Senna's lip twitched at the word, "-here to ensure you reach the afterlife safely. Would you be so kind as to join me over here?"

In spite of her growing confusion over the stray feelings she couldn't help but pick up on, Senna phased back through the railing and obediently joined the polite man, the Shinigami. It was so weird. She felt it simply natural to accept this sort of spirit as existing, even though she sure as hell had never seen one before... as far as she could remember. It just made no sense. Really, there were no gaps in her memory, no opportunities for her to have experienced anything that would warrant this deep familiarity, but it's almost like she knew this routine already.

"Really, I'm quite glad I caught up to you so quickly. You have a decent amount of reiatsu. Now-" the man said, drawing his katana. None of the passersby gave the awkward pair even the slightest attention as he hoisted the pommel up to be level with Senna's forehead.

"Hey. Quick question, Mr. Man."

He paused. "What is it?"

"Am I gonna be reincarnated or something?" she asked, putting a finger to the corner of her mouth. "That's been my best guess so far. And I keep getting hit with this sense of... not that I've seen it before exactly, but that it seems right. Does that make sense?"

"Hmph. I'm not here to confirm all your personal hypotheses, but just for your information, I'll tell you. You're going to Soul Society."

"Soul Society... So what's that l-"

Bonk.

"Hey!"

After having jabbed the pommel of his sword at Senna's forehead, the Shinigami began sheathing his weapon again. Senna's protests were stifled as a soft, blue glow began to surround her, and as the world began to feel more distant around her. This... yes, she definitely knew this sensation, somehow. That meant she was right about reincarnation! Score.

"It's a safe place," the Shinigami continued, though his voice seemingly only barely reached her where she stood. "Were you to have remained, you might have been attacked by Hollows. Now..."

Too far. His voice drifted out of audibility at the same rate her surroundings faded into a blissful blankness. There was only a brief moment where she felt fear, the fear that comes with having your memories stripped away again, but it was different. This wasn't a loss caused by disease or age, this wasn't a loss like the one that kept nagging at her all day, this was just natural. Comfortably natural. Senna embraced it like an old friend.

Senna.

Name. _Whose name?__ Mine?_ Definitely hers.

Senna held onto almost nothing, but she was still Senna. At the core of her soul, that fact never changed, never left, was never forgotten. The syllables repeated in her consciousness over and over again, like a lifeline her mind clung to as it lost all other sensation and all memory. It didn't necessarily feel wrong, but she didn't want to lose at least this one piece of herself over this imperceptible span of time. And what she wanted to gain was--

Plop. She could feel the grass beneath her knees and her legs now, sitting as she was. _Wherever_ she was. It was so sudden, but the sense of having reached a destination was both palpable and comforting. She wasn't aware of how long she'd been journeying, or where she came from, or where she was, or really anything else, but she was still holding onto something. She was named Senna.

"What the hell?!"

Senna's attention whipped to the source of that harsh tone, to the voice she couldn't place but couldn't in a thousand years ever misplace. She _knew_ that voice.

As her head turned, a pair of boys were brought into view, both, she instinctively understood, appearing around the same age as herself, and both wearing fairly humble, archaic clothing. One was an absolute giant of a man, dark skin and a mop of wild brown hair obscuring his eyes. And the other... Senna could hardly keep thinking.

_What is this sense of nostalgia?_

His most distinctive feature frankly had to be his eyes, scarily intense even while tempered by an inner sense of compassion. Next was his shock of orange hair, spiked up lazily. Somehow he looked a bit different than she thought he should, as silly of a thought as that was. After all, she remembered nothing, much less an entire person. So why did she carry a preconception about this one?

"Hmm. First time I've seen someone pop into existence like that. Strange," noted the larger of the two.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Uh, hey, lady, you okay?"

Senna brought herself to her feet. "The name's Senna, not _lady_. But yes, I feel pretty okay... well, except for the hunger. Damn. Hey, treat me to something, dude."

"The name's Ichigo," he replied with a self-amused tone and an equally self-amused grin, "not _dude_."

"Nice one, Ichigo."

"Oh, give me a break, Chad!" the orange-haired boy shoved at his friend's shoulder. He then took a moment to brush himself off before standing up. "Anyways. Senna. Ah, how do I say this... this was really god damn weird."

"You're telling me," Senna retorted grumpily, taking a moment to look around. They were all in a clearing of sorts, apparently a gathering spot if the old fallen logs arranged like seats were any indication, and most of what she could see consisted of trees or other greenery. In the distance, she thought she could spy a smokestack or two, but she wasn't able to confirm anything before the larger boy spoke up again.

"I'm Sado. Nice to meet you."

"Uh, you too."

Ichigo and Sado looked at each other quizzically. Apparently neither were all that great at communication, a fact which amused Senna on a certain level, but not enough to distract from her own confusion over what was going on and why she was here, specifically, all of a sudden. Maybe it was just a coincidence. And damn, she _really, really_ was hungry.

"Um. We should probably figure this out, Ichigo," the big one - _Sado_, or apparently also Chad? - remarked. Now with his bangs parting by a shift in posture, Senna could actually feel like she was making eye contact with him, as much as she wasn't one to stick to eye contact for very long. "I think she's a new arrival."

"New arrival?"

"Yeah, what do you remember?" Ichigo prompted.

"Mmmm..." Senna's arms stretched back behind her head. "I dunno, I don't really have anything to remember. This is boring."

"People who are new to Rukongai typically don't remember where they came from or anything like that, so that checks out," the orange-haired boy huffed. "I don't suppose you have anyone you'd be looking for, too?"

Senna's lip twitched again. "No, not that I can think of. And if you're not gonna get me anything then I need to go find some food, so-"

"Wait, so you're actually hungry?"

"Well, yeah? That's what I said?"

The two friends looked at each other again. Sado gave him a wide, knowing smirk, saying, "You know, Shibata could use another friend."

"Oh come on, really?! She just popped in out of nowhere!"

Sado crossed his arms. "I know you, Ichigo. Would you really just want to leave her here?"

"Yeah, dude, at least invite me back for din-"

"You!" Ichigo shoved his finger in Senna's direction. "...Fine! Would you like to come over for dinner!"

Senna couldn't tell whether this abrupt, inexplicable development was a good or bad thing, but the feeling she got in her chest was an intense one, one way or another.

* * *

"I'm comin' in!" Renji bluntly called out from the hallway. Rukia heard the door slide open. "Oi, Rukia, you finish all that paperwork already? Geez, you've really mastered the captain's true role, haven't you?"

Without facing away from the window, she replied, "Brother kept chastising me until I could do it quick enough, so..."

"Hah! Yeah, I can picture it already. But then again, you've also had more than enough time to... adapt, and whatnot."

His signature rowdy enthusiasm slowly drained away at the awkwardness of the situation, which Rukia couldn't help but feel was her fault. Obviously Renji still wasn't entirely able to cheer Rukia up when she got like this, a fact which only mildly frustrated him but also caused some major worry, at least when the situation was dire enough. And lately, more and more, it had been. Being told not to interfere, to postpone things time and again in order to let it all naturally happen - it was the mature, sensible path forward, but she never found herself able to simply accept the absence of someone so important to her.

"Hey, Renji... do you really think it's okay to just leave Ichigo be, like this?"

He hesitated in his reply for a moment. "Well, yeah, that's what Captain Kuchiki said too, right? He doesn't remember. It'd be too much right now. But, you know, I'm sure he'll get everything back before you even know it! In fact, I promise! And we'll all hang out again afterwards, just like old times."

"Yeah, just like old times..."

But Rukia wasn't sure how much longer she could wait before seeing him again.

**Author's Note:**

> wow this sure came out of nowhere huh! i guess inspiration is like that. im not sure how many chapters there'll be of this, but probably like two or three. please dont yell at me for writing this rather than my actual upcoming novel.
> 
> btw senna best girl


End file.
